1666 and All That

Plots and conspiracies abounded in the the late 16th and early-mid 17th centuries. And with them came the evolution of a newly-professionalised culture of subterfuge and spying. Paul and Miranda explore the murky world of early modern espionage with historians Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman, authors of an intriguing new study of the spying tricks and techniques that developed rapidly at the time...

Historian Giles Milton joins Miranda and Paul to talk about the life and times of William Adams, an English navigator who was part of a Dutch expedition to the Spice Islands. Adrift in the Pacific, they ran aground in Japan, then a closed and secretive land in the grip of brutal civil war. Unusually for a European, Adams integrated into Japanese society and developed a strong working relationship...

Who was King Charles II? As a controversial new drama-doc portrays him as a brutal avenger of his father's killers, Paul and Miranda go in search of the real Charles. With guest historians Linda Porter and Charlotte White as expert witnesses, we revisit Charles's childhood, his tumultuous experience of Civil War upheavals and years in exile, and his surprisingly conciliatory return to take the thr...

For better or for worse, the Stuart dynasty dominated the 17th-century English political landscape - with inevitable consequences for Scotland, Ireland and wider parts of a nascent empire. History's verdict on the Stuart monarchs is uncertain. Their absolutist inclinations led to Civil War, yet under Stuart leadership the century's turmoils resolved themselves in a way that left Britain stable and...

From humble roots in Switzerland and Swabia, the Habsburg dynasty endured for 900 years, its survival due in part to genetic good fortune. As historian Martyn Rady tells Paul and Miranda, the Habsburgs gambled big on marital matches that would expand and consolidate their power across Europe - and more often than not, they hit the jackpot. Their territories came to include colonies in Africa, the...

The 17th century has rarely been as popular with film and TV dramatists as 'sexier' periods such as the Tudors, the Romans and the Second World War. But recently, 17th-century stories and characters have emerged from the shadows. Dramas such as Mary & George and Shogun - and the docudrama series Royal Kill List -  have attracted large audiences and plenty of media coverage, good and bad. Miranda a...

Great storytelling meets historical rigour in the podcast that brings the 17th century vividly to life.  China at the start of the 17 th century was wealthy, strong and well-governed – the Ming dynasty had been ruling for nearly 250 years and is generally thought of as one of the high points of Chinese civilisation. But within a few decades it suffered a cataclysmic collapse that some estimate cos...

Miranda and Paul are joined by art critic and author Laura Cumming, whose acclaimed book 'Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death' explores painting in the 17th-century Dutch Republic. It was a true Golden Age, an era of great artists whose prodigious output of paintings is unrivalled anywhere in European history.  Laura's book focuses on the work of Carel Fabritius, whose extraordi...

After a short mid-season break, Paul and Miranda return with a timely exploration of 17th-century diaries. This was the century in which the habit of keeping daily personal reflections became widespread - perhaps because, for some devout Protestants, diaries replaced the confessional as a medium in which to confide their innermost thoughts. Greater literacy also contributed to the diary boom.  Mir...

After James II was deposed and replaced by the Protestant William and Mary in 1688, he began a military campaign in Ireland, from where he hoped to launch a bid to regain his crown. But the Jacobite armies were defeated, ending James's hopes and starting a period of Protestant domination in Ireland.  Historian Pádraig Lenihan of the University of Galway has uncovered a fascinating account of the W...

Paul and Miranda reflect on one the most remarkable episodes of 17th-century history - Oliver Cromwell's decision to overturn the 360-year-old exclusion of Jews from England.  Despite opposition from some in the merchant class, and a persistent level of antisemitism among the public, Cromwell put his personal authority on the line to ensure that Jews would once again be free to live, work and wors...

Gareth Russell's latest book charts the 500-year history of Hampton Court Palace near London, best known for its place in the high melodrama of Henry VIII and his wives. Yet as Gareth reveals to Miranda and Paul, the part of the book he most enjoyed writing was not Tudor turmoil, but the extraordinary role Hampton Court played in 17th-century political, religious and cultural life. Music to the ea...

From Shakespeare's plays to courtly fashions after the Glorious Revolution, facial hair - or the lack of it - was a key cultural signifier in 17th-century Europe, and is now a topic attracting an impressive body of scholarship. As Miranda and Paul reveal in this episode, sporting a beard or moustache in mid-century England could suggest royalist sympathies, while clean-shaven chins often indicated...

Great storytelling meets historical rigour in Season Two of the podcast that brings the 17th century vividly to life.  The Levellers were among the most influential and misunderstood political movements of the 17th century, key figures in the events that led to Charles I's trial and execution. John Lilburne, Richard Overton, Thomas Rainsborough and others shaped a democratic republican vision, onl...

Miranda and Paul launch Season 2 with a myth-busting profile of King James VI and I, a fascinating and much-misunderstood monarch whose reign was packed with drama, intrigue and excess. Their guest is Steven Veerapen, author of a new biography of James. Steven's book. 'The Wisest Fool: the Lavish Life of James VI and I' (Birlinn), reassesses James's early life in Scotland, explores his bisexuality...

They're back! Paul Lay and Miranda Malins return with a second season of the podcast that captures the drama and complexity of a pivotal age in British, European and global history.  The 17 th century is often overshadowed in popular culture by the Tudor period that came before it. Yet this was an age whose constitutional crises, identity politics and propaganda resonate with us today unlike any o...

Season 1 of '1666 and All That' comes to an end with a vividly revealing account of how the English state set out to support surviving victims of the Civil Wars of the 1640s. The day after the battle of Edgehill in 1642, the Long Parliament established a national programme of financial relief to wounded Parliamentary soldiers, war widows and bereaved families. The programme was later co-opted by t...

Author Henry Jeffreys has charted British history through its relationships - commercial, industrial and social - with alcohol. And as we discover when Henry talks to Paul and Miranda in this episode, the 17th century played a key role in shaping those relationships. Indeed, Henry argues that Britain had a greater influence on the booze business than any other nation. From the invention of strong...

From Philippa Gregory to Robert Harris, historical novelists are increasingly turning to the 17th century for inspiration. In this episode, writer Julie Maxwell joins Miranda and Paul to talk about her new book 'The Image of the King', which tells the story of Charles I's trial and execution from the dual perspective of the doomed monarch and of the great poet John Milton, a supporter of Cromwell...

When Thomas Roe was sent by King James I to be ambassador to the Mughal Empire in 1615, he discovered a vast and sophisticated polity that far surpassed England in population, wealth and military might.  Paul and Miranda explore this early encounter between England and India with historian Nandini Das, author of 'Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire' (Bloomsbury). Nandin...

In the week that sees a new King Charles crowned in London, Miranda and Paul unearth vivid coronation stories from 17th-century England - including details of the ceremonies for the two previous bearers of that regnal name. As well as examples of spectacular pageantry - and sometimes excess - they find moments of lasting historical significance. And among the various Stuart monarchs' big days out,...

In the second of two episodes examining the origins of the English - later British - empire, Paul and Miranda are joined by Gabriel Glickman of the University of Cambridge. Gabriel's new book, 'Making the Imperial Nation: Colonisation, Politics and English Identity, 1660-1700' (Yale University Press), explores how 17th-century England lacked an effective colonial apparatus, falling behind Spain an...

The 17th century saw early English attempts to carve out territories in the New World, Africa and beyond, with lasting - and all too often tragic - legacies. In the first of two episodes examining the origins of empire and the politics of colonisation, Paul and Miranda talk to historian Matthew Parker, author of 'Willoughbyland: England's Lost Colony.' Matthew tells the remarkable story of Francis...

Fifty years after the publication of Christopher Hill's celebrated Marxist analysis of the English Civil War, 'The World Turned Upside Down', historian Michael Sturza has written a new book that reprises some of Hill's arguments and sets out to refute revisionist attempts to take revolutionary politics out of the history of this tumultuous period. Michael joins Paul and Miranda on the podcast to d...

Paolo Sarpi is far from a household name, even among aficionados of 17th-century history. But Paul Lay believes Sarpi deserves greater recognition, and in this episode he explains why to co-host Miranda Malins.  Sarpi was a Venetian statesman, cleric and thinker. When Pope Paul V decided to excommunicate the city state and its entire population in 1606-07, a punishment for their insistence on appo...